CUPERTINO, Calif. — With a handful of iconic consumer products small enough to all fit on the same tabletop, Steve Jobs changed the way the world lives.

Brilliant and demanding, charismatic and prickly, Jobs, 56 — who died Wednesday — was the visionary behind the Macintosh computer, iPhone, iPod and iPad, raising all to the status of universal must-haves.

Their innovative sleek designs and intuitive systems reflect the singular background of the man who created them — not a buttoned-down businessman but a college dropout, vegetarian, Buddhist, black turtleneck and blue jeans guy.

One of his many gifts was the ability to anticipate what kind of information technology consumers were going to want.

Once, referring to hockey great Wayne Gretzky, Jobs said, “There’s an old Wayne Gretzky quote that I love: ‘I skate to where the puck is going to be, not where it has been.’ And we’ve always tried to do that at Apple.”

Jobs, the co-founder and CEO of Apple, had been ailing for seven years. He underwent an operation for pancreatic cancer in 2004 and had a liver transplant in 2009.

In January 2011 he announced he was going on medical leave and hoped “to be back as soon as I can.”

But his return never came. On August 24 he resigned as chief executive of the technology giant, saying “the day has come” for him to step down.

“I have always said if there ever came a day when I could no longer meet my duties and expectations as Apple’s CEO, I would be the first to let you know,” he said in his resignation letter. “Unfortunately, that day has come.”

A statement from Apple released Wednesday said, “We are deeply saddened to announce that Steve Jobs passed away today. Steve’s brilliance, passion and energy were the source of countless innovations that enrich and improve all of our lives. The world is immeasurably better because of Steve.”

“His greatest love was for his wife, Laurene, and his family. Our hearts go out to them and to all who were touched by his extraordinary gifts.”

Jobs is survived by his wife, Laurene Powell, and four children.

His life was as unconventional as the man himself. He was born February 24, 1955 in San Francisco to Abdulfattah Jandali, a Syrian graduate student who later taught political science, and Joanne Schieble, an American graduate student.

The unmarried couple gave him up for adoption and he was adopted by Paul and Clara Jobs of Mountain View, Calif.

Later, Jobs’ birth parents married and in 1957 had a daughter, his biological sister, who is the novelist Mona Simpson. The siblings first met as adults.

After attending junior high and high school in Cupertino, Calif., Jobs enrolled at Reed College in Portland, Oregon, but dropped out after one semester. However, he continued auditing classes, including one in calligraphy that he later said inspired the Mac’s multiple typefaces.

At 20, he made a spiritual pilgrimage to India and at 21, he and Steve Wozniak, a friend and fellow college dropout, founded Apple Computer in the Jobs family’s garage.

Under his direction, Apple introduced the first Macintosh computer in 1984.

But just a year later, following an internal power struggle, Jobs left Apple and started NeXT computer company and then co-founded what became computer animation giant Pixar, which went on to produce such box office bonanzas as “Toy Story” and “Finding Nemo.”

In 1996, Apple bought NeXT for $429 million and Jobs returned, serving as CEO since 1997. In 2006, Walt Disney bought Pixar in a $7.4 billion deal.

After the Macintosh, Jobs’ subsequent Apple launches included the iPod in 2001, iTunes in 2003, iPhone in 2007 and the iPad in 2010.

In 1991, Jobs — who reportedly once dated singer Joan Baez — married Powell in a ceremony conducted by a Zen Buddhist monk. They have three children and Jobs also has a daughter, born in 1978, from another relationship.

According to Jobs’ biography on the Apple website — a sparse document that runs all of three paragraphs and refers to the Apple CEO by his first name — “Steve grew up in the apricot orchards which later became known as Silicon Valley, and still lives there with his family.”

But if he did not stray far from home, Jobs still achieved one of his reported goals, “I want to put a ding in the universe.”